Start the day with a good breakfast

Other Voices

Mitch Clarke

A friend and I were talking the other day about how much breakfast has changed in our lives. Breakfast used to be simple. My mother would break out the Rice Krispies or the Frosted Flakes and put them on the table.

I would fill my bowl with the cereal of my choice, add some milk and eat, because that’s the way things worked back in the days when children still respected their parents and the boys didn’t get tattoos and earrings and run with the wrong crowd.

I pretty much stopped eating breakfast once I went off to college. Frankly, I like to sleep as long as possible before getting up in the morning, and showering, shaving and getting dressed, usually ate up all the available time before I had to be out the door.

If I did eat breakfast, it usually was in the form of a Pop-Tart that I ate as I drove to work.

I also used to drink a Coca-Cola first thing in the morning. I was following the lead of my grandmother, who drank a Cola-Cola out of a six-and-a-half-ounce bottle first thing every morning.

When I hired Chelsea the Trainer last year, the first thing she told me was that a good nutrition plan started with a good breakfast every day. Deep in my heart, I probably knew that was true. But I don’t like anyone to get between me and a good Pop-Tart.

She told me oatmeal was an easy, fast breakfast that was also healthy. So I start almost every morning now with a cup of instant oatmeal.

But I also eat a lot of eggs, which she recommended because they are high in protein. I often try to make an omelet with ham, cheese and green peppers. Unfortunately, I haven’t mastered making an omelet, so I usually end up with scrambled eggs with ham, cheese and green peppers.

Recently, I wanted to vary my breakfast. Chelsea said cereal was fine, just if I found a brand high in fiber, high in protein and low in carbs.

I quickly eliminated Rice Krispies as an option. Same old “snap, crackle and pop.” That ceased to be amusing after I turned five. Frankly, I don’t want my breakfast talking to me.

I also eliminated Cap’n Crunch, which I loved as a child. Looking back, I can’t believe my mother ever bought those little sugar bombs for me. The last thing an already hyper five-yearold needs is a breakfast that is 99 percent sugar. A bowl of Cap’n Crunch on Saturday morning would usually leave me hyped up until sometime late Sunday evening.

I started looking for cereal boxes with the word “fiber” prominently displayed. All of the current cereal commercials hammer home the idea that if you don’t eat their cereal, which is full of fiber, your bowels won’t move regularly and you’ll die from one of a hundred different diseases.

Also, the healthy cereals don’t have fun names like Fruity Pepples. Instead, they are called things like Nutri-Grain, which sounds like something the farmers back home would use to feed their cows.

I settled on a brand that had cranberries and almonds and brought it home. The next morning, I got out a bowl, poured in some cereal, added some milk and ate. It honestly wasn’t bad.